The Upstate New York Tea (UNYTEA) Party has officially endorsed Watertown Republican businessman Matt Doheny in his effort to unseat Deomcrat Bill Owens in the 23rd Congressional District race, saying Owens favors spending taxpayer money.

UNYTEA had initially backed Conservative and Tea Party favorite Doug Hoffman of Saranac Lake, but Hoffman lost the Republican primary for the GOP’s nomination and has since said he is supporting Doheny.

According to Doheny’s campaign, UNYTEA says Congressman Owens “has broken all the records for federal spending by a Congressman in his first year of office.”

“After less than one year in office Bills Owens has spent an average of $4.2 billion dollars for every day he’s been in office,” said UNYTEA Chairman Mark L. Barie, according to a Doheny news release.

“Our research has failed to identify any first term Congressman in recent history, who voted to spend more money, in less time, then did Bill Owens,” Doheny quotes Barie as saying.

Barie, who also announced UNYTEA’s formal endorsement of Matt Doheny for Congress, distributed a list of spending bills supported by Owens, which according to UNYTEA’s arithmetic amounted to more than $1.2 trillion.

Barie concluded, “The United States is on a collision course with bankruptcy and Bill Owens has his foot on the gas pedal. If he can’t say no to Nancy Pelosi, then we have to do it for him. On November 2, we close their joint checking account.”